Erik Boland: Yankees' Brian Cashman doesn't expect Aaron Judge's scan will 'come back clean'
Yankees' Aaron Judge looks on from the dugout against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium on July 3, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees gave their first real update on Aaron Judge in weeks on Thursday.
Instead of the steady diet of “um, he’s progressing” and “I don’t really know what he’s doing” comments that regularly have come out of the mouth of manager Aaron Boone when he’s been asked about his captain, general manager Brian Cashman offered something concrete.
Cashman, speaking before his foundering club broke out offensively (for one afternoon, anyway) in a 12-4 victory over the Rays at Tropicana Field, said Judge finally will have his fractured rib re-imaged during next week’s All-Star break.
That qualified as newsworthy, given that Judge is finishing the sixth week of the four-to-six-week timetable the Yankees initially gave for that re-imaging to take place when they shut down the three-time AL MVP and put him on the injured list on June 5.
But just how much progress has been made in Judge’s condition isn’t clear.
As part of the Yankees’ bombshell news release on June 5 announcing Judge’s diagnosis, they said he was expected back “at some point this season.”
Cashman reiterated that that remains the expectation, but he didn’t give an answer loaded with encouragement when he was asked this question: If the imaging comes back clean, what kind of time frame would Judge need to be ready for major league games after not doing anything other than lower-body conditioning the last six weeks?
“I don’t think we’re anticipating it’s going to come back clean; I think we’re anticipating and hopeful that it’s showing the healing process,” Cashman said. “The time frame, regardless of what the findings are going to show, is going to be coming from our medical team. I haven’t even bothered to ask that question because his current condition restricts him in a lot of different ways. He can’t do a lot of things in the upper body that puts any stress on his rib cage.”
Internally, the organization has always believed that a best-case scenario for Judge, who last played on May 31 in Sacramento, was a return by mid-August.
The assumption was that Judge, whenever he is cleared to begin baseball activities, would need at least three weeks and quite possibly more to build himself back up before being deemed ready for major league games. In short, he would need to go through what amounts to another spring training.
(Spring training lasts six weeks because starting pitchers need stretching out, though most position players will tell you three to four weeks is enough for them.)
When Judge ultimately is able to begin those baseball activities full-bore will be determined by the level of healing that has occurred in the rib, hence the importance of the upcoming MRI.
“Hopefully whatever the imaging shows will clear him to start adding some things to his workout abilities right now because he’s currently limited,” Cashman said. “You don’t want anything interfering with the healing process of where that injury is.”
Does Cashman believe Judge will be 100% when he returns or will he be playing in some discomfort?
“I don’t know,” he said. “Those type of answers will be provided by our medical squad. I don’t think we want to put him at risk of coming back while still injured. Again, he should be asymptomatic before we turn him loose. If he’s asymptomatic and not feeling anything and they’re showing healing, it’s probably appropriate to get him going again.”
Cashman later said: “From what I understand . . . the time frame that it would take to heal should allow him to be back with us this season. But past that, wait for the imaging to see where we’re at on that process.”
It is not a stretch to say there will be plenty in the organization on pins and needles waiting for those results.
That’s because Thursday’s impressive offensive performance aside — which included two more homers from a suddenly resurgent Ben Rice, who has 28, and a total of 14 hits — the victory bumped the Yankees’ record without Judge this season to 15-19. After going 10-5 in the first 15 games without him, they’re 5-14 since. They were 36-23 when he was sidelined.
None of which was on anyone’s mind Thursday afternoon in the Yankees’ clubhouse, where the music that comes after a win pulsated for only the third time in the last 14 games.
The 12 runs were most the Yankees scored in a game since a 10-5 victory over the White Sox on June 17. From June 18 through Wednesday, the Yankees did not score more than five runs in a game. “I don’t know if exhale would be the right word, but it definitely boosts our morale,” Rice said.
Which is nothing compared to the morale boost the Yankees will get if good news comes from Judge’s next MRI.
Or the opposite effect if the news isn’t so good.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
